On the information overload myth…
October 19, 2007
Okay, I’m going to make a point here, and I’m going to hammer it in relentlessly: There is no such thing as information overload! I repeat: There’s no such thing as information overload! Here’s why:
Information by definition thanks it’s status to the fact that it’s somehow useful or relevant to you. If it’s not, it’s not information anymore… just a pile of data. Data + Added value = Information. If you get overloaded, what you’re experiencing is actually a lack of information, caused by an overload of data.
This may sound like a silly semantic argument, but it’s not: It’s a good illustration of how to solve the issue.. get rid of the data by converting it into useful information. What you can do is set up a “Personal Supply Chain of Knowledge” as Thomas Friedman calls it in “The World is Flat”… which sound very fancy but is very fast becoming a real option with todays technology.
With Web 2.0 sites using RSS, web services, OPML and all kinds of other technologies, we have an unparalleled capacity to pull data in, and convert it to information that is useful to us. For about two years now I’ve been trying to realize this, with mixed success.. but with tools like Netvibes and Yahoo Pipes, it’s getting so much easier!
Quality of information
For now, I’d like to stick to the essentials: What makes good information? What gives it added value? My (admittedly limited) research shows that the following factors are critical:
- The recipient. The data has to get to the right person;
- Time of arrival. It has to get there in a specific timeframe;
- Authority of/Trust in the originating source;
- The effort it takes to absorb the information;
- The ‘resolution’ of the information.
Items 1-3 are fairly easy to determine, or at least have clear opimal values: The right recipient, at the right time, from the right source. Number 4 and 5 are a bit more tricky: You want to get things as detailed as possible (high resolution), but the higher the resolution, the more effort it takes to absorb it… so these two need to balance out.
When you’ve got these bases covered on just about all data that reaches you, you’d have a dream system. Of course, that’s not going to work yet, but we can at least make a start! More about specific tools and methods later…
Kisses,
–
Wafel
Picture attributed to Buglay on Flickr
Comments
2 Responses to “On the information overload myth…”
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I think number 4 is simply too much information that results in having data again. It is a signal to narrow the requirements of the information
Yep exactly! It’s a balance.. on the one hand you want information to be as specific as possible, but on the other hand too specific info is data again indeed (as you said).
That’s why I think the balance between 4 and 5 is crucial.. more is better.. until it gets to the point where takes to much effort to really absorb it (aka too much data).
I’d even go as far as saying that the optimal settings for these points is the essence of the Information Engineer’s job. I wrote some more on that in 2002, see: http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1458824